“After 60 years, the Cincinnati World Piano Competition is closing its doors,” writes Janelle Gelfand in Tuesday’s (5/23) Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio). “The chief reason was financial, said Jack Rouse, chairman of the board. Despite generous donors in recent years, the competition was unable to raise the $300,000 needed to continue to exist…. The legal dissolution of the organization should be complete by June, he said. All former winners have received their prize money and other awards, he said…. The organization does not have its own endowment. Founded in 1956 by Gloria G. Ackerman, the annual Cincinnati-based piano competition … in 2013 … benefited from a new partnership with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which performed for the final round, as well as with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music … which hosted the summertime event…. The partnerships … generated momentum…. Crowds turned out in unprecedented numbers…. But … last year, the competition canceled all of its activities except for one concert honoring its founder, while trustees pondered its future…. Chris Pinelo, spokesman for the Cincinnati Symphony [said] the orchestra had no financial investment other than to ensure participation as the official orchestra of the competition. That money will now be repurposed, he said.”
Posted May 25, 2017
